(Reuters) -Australian restaurant chain Grill'd has made a cheeky apology for putting a 'curse' on Oscar Piastri's Formula One title hopes with their offer of a free burger for every time the McLaren driver gets on the podium.
The Melbourne native has not finished in the top three since the promotion relaunched five races ago, losing the championship lead to teammate Lando Norris and now 24 points behind.
Online conspiracy theorists have been quick to put two and two together.
The chain's Piastri 81 Burger debuted ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in March, with his endorsement, and was relaunched in September after he was on the podium in Italy and leading the championship.
Since then the 24-year-old driver has crashed, collided and picked up penalty points without a sniff of the podium champagne.
The promotion was then changed to reward fans for when he finished a race -- and Piastri crashed out of the Sao Paulo sprint.
"Please stop this promotion and give us some hope for the last three races," pleaded one fan on the chain's Facebook page this week.
Grill'd apologised on social media to "everyone who believes in the 'Curse'.
"We never meant to create a burger so delicious it could change the course of F1 history," it added.
"Sure, we can take a joke about a curse. But let's be real, we'd never bet against a guy like Oscar Piastri. He's our homegrown Aussie hero, and we'll always be in his corner."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
